Academic Paper |
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| Title: | Why labial-velar stops merge to /<i>gb</i>/ |
| Author: | Michael C. Cahill |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Institution: | SIL International |
| Linguistic Field: | Phonology |
| Abstract: | Most languages with labial-velar stops (i.e. /kp/ and /gb/) have both the voiced and voiceless versions, but several dozen languages have only /kp/ or only /gb/. Examination of the stop inventories of such languages reveals that in languages which have only /kp/ there are always other gaps in the stop inventory, but languages which have only /gb/ usually have a full set of other stops, showing that there is a different historical mechanism involved. Also, ‘/gb/-only’ languages are more common than ‘/kp/-only’ languages, despite the cross-linguistic tendency to favour voiceless stops. Comparative studies show that ‘/gb/-only’ languages are often a result of a merger of *gb and *kp into /gb/. I propose that this merger is a result of three phonetic characteristics of the phonologically voiceless /kp/, qualities typical of voiced obstruents. Since *kp is already partly in the ‘voiced camp’, I hypothesise that hearers interpret it as voiced. |
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This article appears in Phonology Vol. 25, Issue 3, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST . |
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